Friends in Argentina

MENDOZA, Argentina- I met a Japanese girl named Yumi in La Plaza Independencia today. I was walking by some artisan booths and I heard her having some trouble communicating in Spanish. So I stood next to her, trying to find a way in so I could help her out. She turned to me: “Do you [...]

MENDOZA, Argentina- I met a Japanese girl named Yumi in La Plaza Independencia today. I was walking by some artisan booths and I heard her having some trouble communicating in Spanish. So I stood next to her, trying to find a way in so I could help her out. She turned to me:

“Do you speak English?”

“Yeah, the word that you want to say is corto.”

Yumi Aoshima in Hungary

She was trying to communicate to the artisan that she wanted a short bracelet. She did have very thin wrists. In fact, every thing about her was very slight — there was almost nothing to her anywhere. She laid a face wide grin down upon me.

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I did not know then that I would not only find myself in bed with this girl in a couple of nights but also meet up with her three times in Japan and again in Hungary over a six year period. Enter Yumi into the Travelogue.

Sometimes you meet people on the road and they pass by with the rest of the landscape — trees, sign posts, fields, cows — but sometimes you pick up someone who stays with you: their face revolves around in your mind and comes to your lips for many years, you see them again in various contexts in various places. They become not only a part of your travels but a part of the mosaic of your life.

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Wade Shepard is the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. He has been traveling the world since 1999, through 83 countries. He is the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China, and contributes to Forbes, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. Wade Shepard has written 3228 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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Wade Shepard is an itinerant writer who has been traveling the world since 1999, through 83 countries. He is the author of Ghost Cities of China, a regular contributor to Forbes, Citiscope, The Diplomat, and the South China Morning Post. This is his personal blog where he shares the stories from his travels that don’t fit in anywhere else.